Herrick was born in the Cheapside district of London in August of 1591. He was the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Stone Herrick and Nicholas Herrick, a goldsmith who died when his son was only a year old. In 1607, Herrick became an apprentice to his uncle, also a goldsmith. He entered Cambridge University in 1613, graduating in 1620 with a master of arts degree. Herrick was ordained a minister in 1623 and four years later served as a chaplain in the Duke of Buckingham's Isle of Rhe expedition, a failed attempt to come to the aid of Protestants in predominantly Catholic France. It is believed he spent much of his time during the next several years among the social and literary circles of London, earning a reputation as a fashionable poet. He became known as one of the Sons of Ben, a group of poets greatly influenced by...